Articles and tips from Pepperdine University's IT Technology and Learning group.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Mobile Development Options - Part 1: Overview

By Mark Giglione

Mobile Development Options - Part 1: Overview

This series will provide brief introductions to options for mobile app development with links to pursue each topic in more depth. The general plan is to begin with technologies that do not require a background in programming (or otherwise require traditional programming skills) and then explore options that progressively involve acquiring more technical expertise.Part 1: OverviewPart 2: MIT App InventorPart 3: Mobile Web Development with DreamweaverPart 4: Titanium Appcelerator & Titanium StudioPart 5: ProcessingPart 6: Xcode for Apple iOS Development Part 7: Eclipse for Android Development Part 8: Other Tools and Wrap-Up

Overview

There
are two primary strategy choices for creating mobile applications. The
first is to create a ‘native’ application targeted for a specific
device or device operating system (e.g. iOS devices, such as an iPad or
iPhone, and Android devices like the Amazon Kindle). The second is to
develop a website or web application that is designed for viewing by a
mobile device. A
native application is tailored and optimized for use on a specific
device and is usually distributed through an online marketplace (for
example iTunes for iOS devices). Typically a native application
requires the use of a traditional computer programming environment such
as Xcode or Eclipse (but alternative development approaches are
available). Mobile
websites and mobile web applications can have a similar look and
interface conventions as a native mobile application but are created
using the tools and technologies that are typically used to create
conventional web sites (e. g. HTML, CSS and Javascript). This has the
advantage of utilizing tools that may already be familiar from previous
web development work and the web based application is directly
accessible from the web without first being downloaded and installed. While a native application may be a better choice where performance or
device specific features are required, mobile web applications can be
quite suitable for implementing simple to moderately complex
applications. Mobile web applications are for the most part inherently
“cross platform” since they are web rather than device based. Additionally, many mobile web applications can also be packaged and
distributed as a standalone native applications.The
next installment will discuss the open source MIT App Inventor tool
which uses codeless “visual” programming for creating native Android
applications. App Inventor is also representative of a class of mobile
development tools where the development environment is web based (rather
than running on the desktop) but the final product is a native application.